


Beast

by squirtturtle665



Series: Inception Bingo 2019 [2]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Inception Bingo, M/M, Puppy Fic, christmas in july
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 20:31:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19980088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squirtturtle665/pseuds/squirtturtle665
Summary: Eames tries to surprise Arthur, and it doesn't go according to plan.





	Beast

Arthur wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone breaking into his house. He promptly slaps Eames in the arm repeatedly to get him to wake up. Eames is a heavy sleeper, and Arthur doesn’t have time for this shit, so after the fifth slap, he quietly gets out of bed and grabs his gun from underneath it.

It’s interesting because Eames didn’t so much as stir when Arthur was practically assaulting him, but as soon as Arthur cocks his gun, Eames is wide awake.

“What’s happening?” he asks groggily.

Arthur shushes him. “Someone’s breaking in.” Moving toward the bedroom door, he says it like it’s only a mild inconvenience, not a potential threat to his life.

After a pause, Eames says, “Come back to bed, Arthur.”

Arthur stops in his tracks. “What are you talking about?” he whispers. “Get your gun and get behind me.”

“You set up the security system,” Eames reasons, “which means no one can get in here.”

Arthur lowers his gun, frustrated. The only reason he had to set up a new security system was because someone had broken in not too long ago. Even though he and Eames have been retired from the dreamshare world for almost a year, Arthur isn’t convinced that all their enemies have given up on their pursuit of the famous pair. It seems that he’s right, but he would’ve expected Eames to be a bit more ready for action.

A loud bang from somewhere inside the house, downstairs Arthur assumes, makes him jolt.

“How the fuck do you explain that then?” he whisper-shouts to Eames.

He doesn’t hear any of Eames’ protests as he walks out the door, but he does hear Eames mutter “shit, shit, shit” from behind him. Before he can even start down the stairs, Eames grabs him by the arm.

“Arthur, it’s not what you think,” he says vaguely.

“What, you mean it’s not one of our many enemies coming to exact revenge against us?” Arthur hisses back, shaking Eames off of him. “Because that’s exactly what this is.”

Eames sighs loudly, and Arthur makes his way down the stairs, slowly and methodically. His thoughts are only focused on eliminating the threat in their house because this is _his_ house, and how dare anyone try to take any part of it away from him? He’s protective, and yeah maybe a little territorial, but he feels safe here, and he knows Eames feels safe here, and he doesn’t want anything to disturb that.

When he makes it to the bottom of the stairs, Arthur can hear a quiet voice murmuring, “It’s okay, it’s okay.” A woman’s voice. Automatically, a list of all the women he’s worked for, worked with, and worked against runs through his head.

Marie? No, Eames paid her off.

Gina? Potentially, but Cobb has assured Arthur time and time again that she wouldn’t be a problem for them anymore.

Arthur gets his answer when Eames reaches around him and flips on the kitchen light. The woman turns her head, and Arthur recognizes a familiar face. Ariadne. She’s kneeling down on the floor, obstructing Arthur’s view of whatever she’s kneeling down in front of.

She stands up, still blocking the object behind her. “I’m sorry, Eames.”

“You navigate dream spaces for a living, but you can’t navigate a house that you are incredibly familiar with?” Eames asks lightly.

Ariadne shrugs. “It was dark.”

Arthur’s gun has been lowered at this point, but he’s still standing at the bottom of the stairs, completely dumbfounded.

“What is this?” he questions.

“Darling, I apologize,” Eames starts. “I didn’t mean to startle you. This one wasn’t supposed to make such a ruckus,” he says, motioning to Ariadne.

“What were you doing breaking into our house in the first place?” Arthur asks, genuinely agitated. He doesn’t understand why Eames and Ariadne are being so lighthearted about this, why Eames seems like he’s in on something with her without Arthur.

A small smile comes across Eames’ face and he nods to Ariadne. “Release the beast.”

Ariadne steps to the side to reveal a small crate, and she opens the crate to reveal an even smaller puppy that looks just like a teddy bear. Arthur lets out a breath when the puppy starts to saunter over to him, uncertain and almost like it doesn’t quite know how to walk properly yet. As the puppy gets closer, Arthur feels his agitation melt away. He looks at Eames who is closely studying Arthur’s reaction. Eames gives him a small nod, and Arthur crouches down to let the puppy come to him.

“Um, love, maybe put the gun away?” Eames suggests. “Wouldn’t want to scare our new friend.”

Arthur looks down at the forgotten gun still gripped tightly in his hand. “Shit, yeah. Here,” he hands the gun up to Eames, feeling flustered but never taking his eyes off of the dog.

The puppy reaches Arthur and cautiously sniffs his bare leg. It seems scared but crawls right up into Arthur’s lap when he moves to sit cross-legged on the kitchen floor.

Arthur’s sure he has complete wonder in his eyes when he looks up at Eames. “Is this…,” he trails off.

Eames smiles proudly. “She’s all ours. Happy Christmas.”

“It’s July,” Arthur says with a loopy smile on his face, softly scratching the now sleeping puppy’s small head.

“Yes, well, when I saw her, I knew we had to have her.”

“Only on the condition that I get to dogsit when you guys travel,” Ariadne adds.

Arthur is almost speechless. He and Eames have talked about getting a dog for a while, now that their schedules were much less hectic, but he never expected it to happen like this.

“I was going to surprise you in the morning. You know, have her lying next to you when you woke up, but well, I suppose this is alright too, isn’t it?” Eames asks, chuckling.

“What’s her name?”

“Doesn’t have one yet. Any ideas?”

Arthur doesn’t have to think too hard about it, remembering what Eames had said when Ariadne opened the crate.

“Beast,” Arthur says.

He watches Eames cock his head, considering the name that clearly doesn’t fit this tiny puppy in his lap.

Eames smiles. “I think it’s perfect. Ariadne?”

“Weird, but yeah. I like it.”

Arthur’s eyes go back down to Beast, still sleeping soundly. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, darling,” Eames says. He pauses. “Wait, was that to me or Beast?”

“Beast. Definitely Beast.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas in July! Thanks for reading!


End file.
